Tuesday, 8 January 2013

The buzz goes on - New Music Biennial

Building on the success of last year's 20x12 the PRS for Music Foundation has decided to make it a regular thing and announced plans for a New Music Biennial, the first one taking place in 2014. It will be the first ever UK-wide New Music Biennial - supporting and promoting up to twenty brand new commissions to be performed across the country and at two special weekend events at London's South Bank Centre (4-6 July 2014) and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music to coincide with the Commonwealth Games (2-3 August 2014).

20x12 created a real buzz and was one of the more coherent contemporary music ideas to come out of London 2012, so it is good to see that the PRS for Music Foundation is building on this; particularly the success of their weekend on the Southbank which showcased not only 20x12 but other new music as well. (see our coverage of 20x12 on this blog).

The PRS for Music Foundation is calling for proposals for the New Music Biennial 2014, inviting promoters, organisations, festivals and venues across the UK to present ideas for works. As the focus of the 2014 event will be international (with the Commonwealth Games and the UNESCO City of Music), applicants are asked to come up with their own distinctive take on this international aspect. Groups have up to 4 March 2013 to apply, with non site-specific works lasting less than 15 minutes with music in any genre. With 20 grants of up to £20,000 available, the intention is to have 12 in England, six in Scotland, one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland. The works will be released digitally on NMC recordings and broadcast on Radio 3.